1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing device.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been known printing devices including a data receiving unit for receiving data from devices upstream, a printing unit for printing according to the received data, and monitoring unit for determining whether or not the printing unit is in an available condition for printing operations. Such printing devices include printers and facsimile devices.
In a local area network (LAN), for example, a plurality of computers share a single printer. With this configuration, however, overall printing work is backed up when the printer cannot perform printing operations due to out of paper or any other errors. Also, when a facsimile device cannot perform printing operations because of, for example, out of paper, the facsimile device responds to incoming calls with a busy signal without receiving incoming data. This inconveniences both a transmitter and a receiver.
That is, overall work operations can be delayed simply because one printing device is unable to print.